Culturas políticas e redes de governo na Amazônia Pombalina dos tempos de Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado (1751-1759)

Abstract

The administrative networks, under Old Portuguese Regime perspective of the political cultures, have increasingly attracted the historians attention dedicated to study the political history and ultramarine governance during the seven hundreds. The administrative trajectory of Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado - Governor and Captain General of Grão-Pará and Maranhão, between 1751 and 1759 - provide us a privileged opportunity to observe the innumerable outstanding elements from these political cultures in the Amazon Valley, such as political disputes and jurisdictional ones, following the pattern of the Old Regime in the new spaces of power created by the reforms in the reign of D. José I (1750-1777), particularly in view of the creation of the Directory of the Indians and the new status granted to native populations in the XVIII century. In this case, the emergence of a new political form of administering the Empire, based on enlightened ideas of rationality and economy, clashed with the traditional spaces of power and jurisdiction, causing several conflicts both within the peripheral administration and with the local elites, almost always indisposed to newness. Mainly, from the Pombaline strategy of occupation, rationalization, demarcation and defense of the Amazon, after the Treaty of Marid signing wich incorporated about 3000 km ² to the Portuguese territory in America.